A Difference of Opinions
by EleKat
Summary: In which Harry wonders why everyone is calling him the heir of Slytherin and Seamus is very bitter. Set during The Chamber of Secrets.


**While going through my google drive I found this, I wrote it for a short story unit in English class this year so I've decided to post it here.**

 **Note: Lots of things that usually wouldn't need explaining have been explained because my English teacher had never read or watched Harry Potter for some odd reason...**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter**

In his second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry Potter was hoping that this year would be his first normal year in the Wizarding World, if that could ever be considered normal. This year though, people were assuming Harry was the heir of Slytherin because of the fact that he could speak parseltongue; the language of snakes. The only people who were able to do that had a direct line to Salazar Slytherin through their blood.

It wasn't as though he _chose_ to speak parseltongue. He was the chosen one, this is his reason about why he spoke it, anyways.

However his best friend, Ron Weasley, believed that he was not the heir of Slytherin. Harry was hit by Voldemort's curse. Voldemort was against him, not with him. With these facts in mind, it was obvious that the heir of Slytherin was actually _in Slytherin_!

Others though did not believe Harry when he insisted that he was indeed not the heir of Slytherin. They said that he _had_ to be the heir, all because of the snakes.

One rainy afternoon the Gryffindors, a group of students in Hogwarts, were in Transfiguration class with the Slytherins when Seamus Finnigan, a fellow Gryffindor classmate of Harry's and his Irish friend, glared at him from his spot beside Ron.

Pretending not to notice, Harry continued on working on transfiguring the white rabbit that sat in the cage on his desk into slippers, unsuccessfully.

The threat that was on the school, the Basilisk (which was the most terrifying creature at the time), was giving him a headache. Along with the fact that his classmates didn't believe him when he said _he didn't set it free_.

"Maybe you can tell it to turn into slippers like you commanded that snake to attack," Seamus said to Harry without looking at him. Ron glanced over at the boy who was always making things explode while Harry stared at him.

"I didn't set the snake, I told him to stop," Harry tried to explain once again.

Seamus didn't seem to believe Harry though, as he ignored him and continued to try and transfigure the rabbit.

The class was once again quiet with the murmur of failed spells in the background. That was until Hermione yelled out in happiness.

"I did it!" she said with a smile.

"Congratulations Miss Granger, ten points to Gryffindor," Professor Mcgonagall praised from the front of the classroom. The elder teacher's cat like eyes then swooped over the classroom, quietly analyzing how the other students were doing. She was not impressed with their progress.

Finally, a smile lit up Ron's face, however it fell off just as quickly when Ron looked down and saw that the rabbit, who was supposed to turn into slippers, was indeed a pair of slippers… although it still had feet. Also, the pink nose was twitching!

Looking over, Harry burst out into laughter. Hermione, who was sitting on the other side of Harry, also looked, but tisked while looking disappointed.

"Good try, Ron," she said encouragingly. Ron joined Harry in his laughter as they looked down upon the slippers.

"Stupid-broken-wand," he said between fits of laughter.

"I bet you broke his wand, Potter," Seamus cut in as he looked sympathetically at Ron. "To sabotage him."

"Why would I do that? He's my best mate!" a confused Harry said. Seamus glared at him.

"You obviously are trying to get him killed. You're the heir of Slytherin after all!" Seamus exclaimed. The spells became louder and flashes of white light appeared as people attempted to turn the rabbits into slippers still.

Harry glared at the Irish boy and tried to look menacing, which didn't work with his messy black hair and childlike face.

"I'm the _what_?" he asked. To Hermione and Ron it was obvious that Harry knew what Seamus had said. The three had a long conversation about it a couple of night ago. They wondered how they could convince everyone to believe Harry when he said he was not the heir of Slytherin.

"The heir of Slytherin, opened the chamber of secrets… is trying to murder all the muggle borns!" an oblivious Seamus explained.

"Take it back!" Harry yelled as he stood up. Lifting his wand, he pointed it at Seamus. The classroom became silent as all the students stared at the two Gryffindors.

"But it's true!" Seamus yelled back as he too stood and pointed his wand.

"Boys!" Mcgonagall tried to yell but the words were lost upon the two twelve year olds.

" _Expelliarmus!_ " Harry yelled as a scarlet coloured light flew out of his wand.

" _Flipendo_ " Seamus yelled but it was too late. Just as the blue light was appearing from the tip of his wand the disarming spell hit him and sent him backwards into Dean Thomas and Lavender Brown. Also, it successfully sent his wand to the floor by Harry's feet.

The room had become so silent and tense that you could've heard a pin drop. The only thing that could be heard after a few seconds was the heavy breathing of both boys. Professor Mcgonagall strolled quickly down the classroom aisle to where the boys were sitting, her face red in anger.

"Mr. Potter! Mr. Finnigan! Detention and ten points from Gryffindor - each!" Professor Mcgonagall cried angrily. Both boys looked down ashamed. They hadn't meant for this to happen and were hoping that their spells wouldn't work. Apparently hoping didn't stop this from happening.

"Bloody hell," Ron said. His reaction was late, but it was the reaction Harry was expecting.

After class, Harry was walking down the hallway with his two friends, and the guilt of the argument was eating at him.

"You two need to sort this out, mate," Ron said as he shook his head. "Mcgonagall is bloody angry!"

"I know," Harry said with a frown. "It wouldn't have happened if Seamus didn't keep accusing me of being the heir of Slytherin! I'm not, I'm not even in Slytherin!" he exclaimed miserably.

"Harry, you cannot react like this every time someone accuses you of this or you're going to give Gryffindor negative points! Now, you wouldn't want that. Would you?" Hermione tisked him from the other side of Ron.

"I suppose not…" he said as he remembered the look of utter disappointment on Malfoys face the year before when Gryffindor had won the house cup. He wanted that again. He needed to be better than the Slytherin prick!

The three walked down the hallway for a bit in silence. All of them thinking of different things. Hermione was trying to figure out how to make Seamus and Harry friends again and Harry was thinking of ways to prove he wasn't the heir. Ron, who was not thinking of anything of utter importance, was wondering what they'd be having for lunch. He hoped it was chicken and rice pudding.

"I've got it!" Hermione said with a huge smile that lit up her eyes when Seamus and Dean came into view walking up the stairs ahead of the trio.

"What 'ave you got?" the confused red head asked. Harry also looked at Hermione confused.

"The way that Harry and Seamus will become friends again!" Both boys sighed. They'd thought it was something about who had opened the chamber. Right now they believed it to be Malfoy, who they had decided was evil. His father was a follower of he-who-must-not-be-named and that summer Harry had accidentally seen him in Borgin and Burkes, a store in the dark side of Diagon Ally.

"How?" Harry asked glumly. "He doesn't want to be my friend, it is obvious he thinks I'm evil," the boy with glasses sighed. The bushy haired girl rolled her eyes.

"You both just need to stay in the same room and sort out your differences," Hermione said it as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Once when my cousin and I were fighting then I was in primary school my dad and Uncle made us sit in the lounge till we were friends again," Hermione said with a smile.

Harry was annoyed. This wasn't some primary school yard tiff, this was the fact that a fellow Gryffindor thought he was evil. He didn't care about the rest of the school thinking it, they didn't know him, and they only knew him by his name. A fellow Gryffindor though, now that hurts.

"Come on, it is a brilliant idea!" Hermione said with a smile. "Please, just try it," she begged. Harry reluctantly agreed but had no clue to when this would occur.

* * *

"For your detention, you boys will be scrubbing these desks clean. This includes the gum on the underside of the table, and you will do this without magic," Mcgonagall said as she observed them from the back of the room. "Then you may work on some homework. I'll be in my office," with that she walked out of the room and down the hallway. But not before secretly locking the door to keep the boys in the room.

From around a corner, Hermione, Ron and Dean looked on with smug looks on their faces.

"This will make them friends again for sure!" Hermione whispered.

Inside the classroom, the two boys grabbed their sponges and buckets of water and started scrubbing down the top of the desks.

The tops were littered with ash from mini explosions or marks from spell mishaps.

Having grown up around muggles, Harry was used to this kind of work. It didn't scare him, and all he had to do was scrub the desks down. He'd also done this work when he was in primary school when Dudley had gotten him detention.

Granted, scrubbing down desks in a wizarding school was harder than it had been in a muggle school. Since this mess was spell mishaps and magical debris and not sticky glue, and pencil marks of leftover food from lunch time, it took much longer and more energy.

"Why do you think I'm the heir of Slytherin?" Harry asked after what felt like days of silence. It happened to only be about half an hour.

Between the two of them, they'd only cleaned about five of the desks. Seamus paused as he seemed to be pondering the answer to this question. Why _did_ he believe Harry was the heir? Then the answer popped into his mind;

"You can speak parseltongue!" He exclaimed as though it was the most obvious answer in the world.

"So?" Harry asked. "I bet _tons_ of others speak it too," he said confidently.

"Only you, only the heir of Slytherin. A blood ancestor of Salazar Slytherin can," Seamus said to Harry. "You should know this, you are the heir,"

"I grew up with muggles… and I'm not the heir!" Harry exclaimed. "I'm sick and tired of being called the heir when I am not! I was not aware I could speak to snakes, nor do I want to! I did not open the chamber of secrets, I don't even know where it is!"

Seamus was quiet after Harry's outburst and the two of them went on cleaning quietly.

After about three hours they'd finished cleaning all the desks and were now sitting working on their potions essay. Neither spoke, all that was heard was the scratching of quills on parchment.

The essay they had to write was a foot and a half long, so Harry was writing in large printing to hopefully not have to write as much.

"I'm sorry," mumbled Seamus suddenly without looking up from his essay. Harry looked up from his own parchment, so fast it could have hurt his neck. He looked across the classroom at Seamus, who appeared to have a red tint to his cheeks.

"Huh?"

"I'm sorry I called you the heir. Now that I think about it, it is kind of ridiculous," Seamus said once again as he looked up at Harry.

"It's alright," Harry said.

The two then lapsed into silence once again as they worked on their essays.

"This is stupid," said Harry after about another five minutes.

"What is?" asked the boy, who Harry just noticed had no eyebrows once again. Then he remembered the explosion in potions the other day, which was the reason why they had to write these essays in the first place. An essay about the importance of following instructions.

"The essay. What you did was an accident," explained Harry. Seamus nodded.

"Sorry this happened," he said guiltily. Harry waved his concerns away.

"Its fine," he said with a small smile.

"Harry, I need to apologize to you. I should have believed you,"

"I forgive you," the young black haired boy said. "Just… please don't do it again,"

Laughing, Seamus agreed. At that moment, Professor Mcgonagall walked back in.

"You boys may go now," she said. Bidding her goodnight, Harry and Seamus left the room.

Something she hadn't told them was that she had been monitoring them the whole time as a cat. They didn't have to know though that a tabby cat had been watching them in the background.

She was glad though that they were once again friends, and knew that Hermione, Ron and Dean would be too.


End file.
